Preditcting an election outcome has always been fraught with embarrassment for those who get it wrong.
One of the most memorable occasions took place in the United States in 1948 when The Chicago Tribune printed a banner headline on its front page screaming Dewey Defeats Truman! The result was the other way around and Harry Truman became president.
Like Freundel Stuart, he too had become president after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, and had now won his own full term.
Congratulations to the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), winners of the February 21 general election, and commiserations with the losers, the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
Like all contests, the winners exult and the losers lick their wounds.
Two aspects of the election that caused me concern can be found in idioms well known to the average Barbadian: “The thin edge of the wedge” and “To nip something in the bud”. The trouble with the second one is that you seldom know what the bud will become and you usually pay no attention until it’s too late.
It’s the Barbadian way not to nip things in the bud. Lack of space restrains me from listing the instances in which we have allowed things to get out of hand.
The Prime Minister was so outraged by the buying and selling of votes that he promised in his acceptance speech to root it out and to go after the perpetrators. By now he must have learned that there were sinners in both parties.
He knows that this practice is rooted deep in our political culture since its genesis in the form of corned beef and biscuits in the village shop. It has become a rampaging cancer which will devour the body politic.
I wish him well but I doubt he can excise that malignancy.
The thin edge of the wedge describes a minor event that becomes a major development, especially an undesirable one. It takes only a narrow wedge positioned in a log of wood to split it in two.
Barbados is split right down the centre with two tribes, one wearing yellow and blue, the other red.
If you want a more ominous augury to explain this, have a look at Page 36 of the SATURDAY SUN of February 23, two days after the general election, which saw the Democratic Labour Party, by the skin of their teeth, retaining the reins of Government.
The newspaper captioned a picture of a group in yellow and blue celebrating their victory behind a coffin and a picture of then Opposition Leader Owen Arthur, with these words: “. . . wherever there’s a winner, there’s always a loser; and these DLP supporters lightheartedly portrayed the Barbados Labour Party’s loss via a mock coffin which was topped by a BLP poster.”
This is a worrying trend. I hope the two political parties will move quickly to end this nonsense of affiliation by colour. It’s a backward step.
Ambassador Robert Morris, campaign manager of the winning party, decried the emergence of this trend. As a historian, he knows very well of what he warns.
To the undiscerning, such displays of celebration are indeed “lighthearted”. They would be advised to check history. Thirty years ago, any political party wearing red would be dubbed Communist. The DLP can claim to be on safer ground with the national colours.
When political fires get out of hand it can be difficult to put them out. Can we expect the burning of effigies next time?
We soothe ourselves into complacency with the well known lullaby “It can’t happen here” while the ingredients are already deeply embedded in the fertile soil to ensure rapid growth. As usual, when the plant emerges, we will wonder where it came from “all of a sudden”.
Harold Hoyte was awed at the sight of two armies – one in red, the other in yellow – marching towards the final rally. On reaching the junction of Jemmotts Lane and Bay Street, the reds turned left toward the Esplanade and the yellows turned right to Independence Square. Without incident.
Can this continue?
• Carl Moore is the first Editor of THE NATION and is a social commentator.